Recent reviews by Zexyz Prime

This is one of those slice-of-life memoir games, obviously. I was pointed to it by notorious culture nerd, Jacob Geller and I'm really glad. It's not quite my thing, but it's so interesting I stuck with it to the end. It's about as long as a feature film, which is a good length and might beg the question "why not make a movie?"

Because I actually felt like an eight-year-old. Messing with my friends, getting in trouble, and mostly feeling like I couldn't catch a break to save my life. The soccer play is actually pretty fun, and it could be a game all on its own, but that's not really what it's about. I have to say, I never knew much about Ecuador before now, and what I've learned makes me smile. This one is real art, like what games can actually do as a way to make you feel. If you give it a chance, it might just charm you. GOAL!

Pretty cute l'il well-polished time-sink. A competent player will demolish it in a few hours, so if this your kinda thing, go for it. I personally hate these, but I was surprised at how the game morphs from a sort of annoying clicker to an almost engaging shooter. The escalation really changes the action bit, even if the shopping bit gets kinda dull. Inverse difficulty curves are weird, man...

PROTIP: Don't bother with the prestige mechanic. Just focus on keys.

I want to love it. I really do. But sometimes what looks like sexy, trashy fun is exactly what your papa says it is: all dressed up and nothing but trouble.

The art is stellar, the mood is solid, it's got a truckload of charm, but the gameplay is really off-balance. 97% of the time, it's a breezy rampage, levels you can clobber with your eyes closed. Then it'll throw in that one dirty a**h**** trick right at the end of a level where your odds of winning are completely at the whims of NRGeezus. There's levels where you die in the first five seconds if you don't do a jump just right; half of my runs are just waiting to see if my gun is going to work this time or if the enemies will remember to shoot theirs; if I want a slot machine, I've got better ones. I'm not gonna finish it. This game will make you very, very angry. Maybe you're into that? And like, dude... go pet a dog or something.

I really want to just pan this one, because despite sticking with it and beating it after 2 hours, I really don't like it. What kept me coming back was pure head-strong determination, and if that's your thing: party on.

In the vein of Exit8, this is a game about "noticing anomalies" which range from literal-jump scares you can't miss to maddeningly subtle details like a candle-stick being upside down. There are 100 incidents, and I'm still missing about a dozen of them because I just don't see it. Skill issue? Maybe, but I've played this with rooms full of people taking five minutes to go over every inch of every room. So maybe it's a timing thing, which is probably unfair. Every "hour" we would return to the start and wait to see how many we missed and while an effective use of tension, it really made me feel more angry than "ya got me!" The game is merciful enough to offer infinite retries on the final boss, but because I only had one pad-lock left, it was kind of unsatisfying. I didn't feel like I'd won, I felt like I endured.

But there's some talent here: it's clean, it runs well, it looks good. Despite some of the really obvious cues (the second you see that teddy bear, you know to check it every run) it's a good entry in this little genre. I can't give it a flat no, just a stealth no. ;)

It's 2009. The iPhone is a new thing rarely seen in the wild. I, and my roommates (fellow geeks & slackers), fire up the XBLA store and see this game listed for $1. This is before you got any games for free. Ever. The cheapest was a fiver. Curious AF, we pull it down, fire up four controllers and laugh our asses off.

It may not look it, but this is a bonafide cult classic. The original itch.io, digipen, indie-punk hit game made for the LOLZ! and it was on the official Microsoft store for a price we never thought they'd allow. I'm overjoyed to find it here on STEAM, free of charge and as mad fun as it ever was. This is history. This is art! You are required to have a copy at all times or else every gamer-millennial is allowed to pour mountain dew on your head and laugh at you. Give it a swing!

Gotta give this one a solid "worth checking out" because I usually hate First-Person Job Simulators like this, yet it ended up eating half my week. It's loose and simple enough to give you a sense of agency without decision paralysis, and I settled into an enjoyable routine that kept me coming back even after the demo was over. There's a ton of jank, but if you're willing to look past it, this is one adorable time killer.

I just finished the second boss. Let me tell you something absolutely important: I just turned 48, and I thought I'd seen it all. Every surprise, every trick, everything a videogame could ever do to impress me. I was dead-ass wrong. You NEED to play this game. You need to go into it cold. I promise you: It is absolutely worth it. The term fourth wall break doesn't even come close to how great this game is at blowing your mind with its dazzling video tricks and glitches. You will wonder why, after 45 minutes, you suddenly can't play at full screen, and when you find out why... you'll be glad you played anyway.

The rhythm gameplay is actually quite forgiving. This is easily one of the more "pick up and play" games in the genre, though it will feel very intense. I think it helps if you already play a lot of rhythm games. The single-button single-beat play is a deception: they get a lot of mileage out of it, and the gameplay requires a lot more snap-reflexes than just hitting a button in a steady beat when you have to track three targets at once. Despite that, I've been making steady progress through the story on "passing" grades. It's not at as hard as it looks and also not as simple as it sounds.

Update: I want to add there's a SEVERE difficulty spike at level 6 when it gets into complex "rhythms" which are basically freeform jazz, but I don't have to fini--

Update the Second: I couldn't let it go. I stuck with it. And right at the end... And I was not expecting this at all... Undertale levels of emotional resonance. I didn't think I cared this much, and when a piece of art surprises anyone like that, that's something special. <3

S+ story campaign. Cheers!

I haven't played too much of this genre, so I don't know how new this is, but there's a mode at the end of this game where you have to play two games at once (which I've never seen before). It was pretty invigorating, and far more interesting than I've seen in this microgenre. Arguably making this more than just a clone, but maybe not too much more. Clearly it was made for the lols. It's really going to depend how much you enjoy games like this already, but the creativity in that ultimate chapter might be worth the price of a cheeseburger if you like a challenge.

What you see is what you get, it's fun, simple, kid-friendly and pretty rough around the edges. You can forgive some of the jank if you let yourself settle into the cozy vibe (like throwing your camera for the 20th time because the buttons aren't set very well) but try to take it slow. Some of the puzzles are a little annoying, (hint: don't forget to check the gutter pipe, and if you can click it, try it), but you're here for a fun little campout in the PNW, not a serious puzzler. I had fun with single four-hour run through, and it really brought a smile to my cold, cynical heart. Basically, if it looks like you'd enjoy it, you probably will. <3

Here's what you do.

You hand someone the controller, you don't tell them what you're doing, then you start this up. Works every time.